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Foofle
Foofle is an character created by Gene Deitch, he is a short, round bellied man with a great wanderlust for the outdoors and interesting places, however no matter where he goes his bad luck is sure to fallow, Many things are fool proof, but nothing on earth is Foofle proof. Background In 1955 the retiring Paul Terry decided to sell the studio along with their characters to CBS and 20th Century Fox, The new owner installed Gene Deitch in charge of things, he decided to create his own characters to star in the new series of TerryToons, and one such character was Foofle, whose name is a play on the word "Fool", he was one of the last characters made by Gene as he designed Foofle during his final year at the studio. A character made to be the epitome of Milo's Law, anything which could go wrong for the character, most certainly would, no matter the situation, he had large eyes with thicker outlines then the rest of him and thin stringy hairs often hidden by his floppy hat. Despite being the creator of Foofle Gene never actually directed a Foofle cartoon, rather he supervised production and left directing duties to Dave Tendlar, who directed all his shorts. Floofle's first outing was the 1959 short "Foofle's Train Ride" which established Foofle's ever present catastrophes, as well as the fact that he never speaks, always remaining silent and letting his actions and facial expressions speak for their self's. However the previous year his creator, Gene, had been fired by Bill Weiss who was not a fan of the UPA inspired work being put out, soon he took control of the studio and under his supervision, Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle went back into production, along with several new characters, however almost every character created by Gene besides for the Oscar nominated Sidney were dropped, and this includes Foofle. However luck was on the character's side for once, as his next two cartoons were mostly complete, tossing out two entire cartoons which had already been finished would be a waste, as such his shorts were released along with the new stuff, however these cartoons released 1960 were the last of Foofle, and after this point the character sadly never returned in any other media for cameos or guest roles, though with Foofle's luck, that sorta makes sense. However this story doesn't end right here, as when Gene Deitch left TerryToons he decided to take several crew members with him and started up his own studio, known as Rembrandt Films, and not too long after he took the idea of a short man who always suffers from bad luck, and created the character Nudnik (His favorite of the characters he created), Nudnik starred in a 1965 cartoon titled "Here's Nudnik" which was nominated for the Oscar. Filmography 1959 * Foofle's Train Ride (Filmed in CinemaScope) 1960 * Foofle's Picnic (Filmed in CinemaScope) * The Wayward Hat Legacy Foofle's time at TerryToons was brief, however if he had continued to be put in use he'd most likely would have been very successful, but as is, he was a very important stepping stone in the creation of Nudnik, a more recognized character. Foofle is a character who could have been more then what ended up as, that's for sure. It's like the old saying goes, if it weren't for bad luck, he wouldn't have any luck at all. Foofle model sheet.jpg| A model sheet of Foofle Category:Characters Category:Characters created by Gene Deitch Category:Human characters